tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23861101310306688582024-02-07T14:35:45.463-08:00CES Lower School Computer Lab ShowcaseEllen Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00262070158397276171noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2386110131030668858.post-86894622741588194392009-03-25T16:09:00.000-07:002009-03-25T16:43:21.533-07:00SECOND GRADE ENDANGERED ANIMAL STICKERSIn science class, the second grade learned about factors that contribute to placing some animals in danger of becoming extinct. In computer class, students went out on the internet and viewed many endangered animals around the world. After choosing an animal, the class discussed ways that people could be informed and educated about the danger these animals were in. We decided to create reusable window clings, like a bumper sticker of sorts, with a picture of the animal and a catchy slogan to get peoples' attention. Each sticker would also provide a brief explanation as to why the animal was in trouble and what could be done to help. Second graders drew a picture of their animal in <em>KID PIX</em>, then placed the image in <em>Adobe Pagemaker</em>. They typed their slogan and explanation text separately so that they could move the elements around to find the best arrangement in the space allowed in the sticker size. They formatted the text experimenting with size, type style and color. The finished files were printed out on transparent window cling stock, with the image and type flopped, so that the text would be right reading when viewed through a window.Ellen Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00262070158397276171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2386110131030668858.post-52870350869334307762009-03-25T15:53:00.000-07:002009-03-25T16:01:15.280-07:00NEW CHARACTERS FOR DR. SEUSSOn Read Across America Day (and pretty much all of that week) students in First Grade enjoyed a lot of Dr. Seuss books. They took inspiration from the zany characters in the stories they all know and love so much, and came up with some new character ideas of their own. They drew the pictures of their characters in <em>KID PIX</em> and wrote about their traits in <em>Microsoft Word</em>. They imported their picture file into the Word document to complete the project.Ellen Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00262070158397276171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2386110131030668858.post-25057323784386399072009-03-25T15:34:00.000-07:002009-03-25T15:52:39.078-07:00KINDERGARTEN DREAM BOOKDr. Martin Luther King's Birthday prompted a discussion with the Kindergarten classes about who Dr. King was. We talked about his famous speech given in 1964 on the Mall in Washington, DC and his dream for the world. The children thought of things that they felt were important that would continue Dr. King's dream. They drew pictures of their dreams in <em>KID PIX</em>, and typed the words in <em>Microsoft Word</em>. (The words that they wanted to say were dictated to me, I typed them and printed them out large, then they typed them into their word documents. This was a good exercise in letter recognition-the words that I typed for them were in upper and lower case letters, but the letters on the keyboard are all capitals!) Students learned how to import their picture into their word file and print them out. All the student's dreams were bound together to form a book.Ellen Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00262070158397276171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2386110131030668858.post-35167542498827100792009-01-11T07:23:00.000-08:002009-01-11T07:34:44.508-08:00SECOND GRADE PERSONAL FLAGSThe Second Grade learned about different countries around the world in Social Studies. As part of the unit of study, they researched and reported in their classrooms about Christmas/holiday traditions and celebrations in other countries. In the computer lab, second graders went out on the internet and looked at flags of different countries and states. They read about the meanings behind the colors and symbols found on flags, and what those things told you about a nation. Inspired by that information, students thought about themselves as if they too were a country, and tried to think of colors and images that represented them and their lives. These flags are a sort of "self-portrait" of each child who designed it.Ellen Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00262070158397276171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2386110131030668858.post-71047775642819944532009-01-11T06:49:00.000-08:002009-01-11T07:22:54.079-08:00FIRST GRADE SEASONS BOOKSAn important technology skill that students learn and practice regularly is file management. When you work on a computer, it is necessary for you to understand how to save a file to an appropriate place (folder) and name it in such a way that it can be easily retrieved at a later date. The First Grade practiced this skill while working on this book in <em>Kid Pix</em>. The master template file was in each student's personal folder. They opened this template file, created a picture of one of the four seasons and then saved the file in their folder, assigning it the name of that season. That left their original master template file untouched, and allowed them to open it and begin on another season picture. By the end of the book, students were very good at navigating their way back to their folder (located on the school's server) and naming files appropriately. This is a skill many adults still struggle with! Students printed their final seasons pages and designed a cover which were bound together as a book.Ellen Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00262070158397276171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2386110131030668858.post-2548055343399218552009-01-11T06:30:00.000-08:002009-01-11T06:48:47.939-08:00THIRD GRADE GROUP STORIESThe Third Graders have been learning to keyboard. They started out working in <em>Type to Learn</em> and <em>Type for Fun</em>, learning home position on the keyboard and practicing typing by touch-trying not to look at the keyboard. In addition to the mostly rote drills used in these programs, we also like to do some fun typing practice. These creative stories were written by classes playing a sort of "musical computers" game. Students started out at their own computer with one beginning sentence in a <em>Microsoft Word</em> document. They were timed as they read the sentence, then added the next sentence in the story. They then rotated to the next computer, which had a completely different story started, and read, then added a sentence of their own. This continued until each student had typed a contribution to each story. Back at their original computers, the third graders practiced editing and using spell check to polish the final paragraph. They formatted the type and added appropriate clip art. Showcased are just a few of the whimsical results of this project.Ellen Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00262070158397276171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2386110131030668858.post-49147726312492409922008-11-30T19:51:00.000-08:002008-11-30T19:59:29.292-08:00SECOND GRADE SLIDE SHOW<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwQr5toAvQa2X8dHfJF0oTQw3S8388-cKSiVy3pZClqrrvnC3nhPODQanB4R2YF_tP5nLkWQT-9QsnKF4OxEg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Ellen Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00262070158397276171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2386110131030668858.post-79103369636199954492008-11-16T09:50:00.000-08:002008-11-19T12:59:49.220-08:00K-3 GRAPHINGAll of the students in grades K through 3 created graphs in their computer classe<img style="CLEAR: both; FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhndeNfWfqzspWAV-8_h-bHahc_-w4jebPjEi2xnhAhvLSp7BwKdZwZT27veRFYEJXw9iZaAtbd4lYMFdoeNj-HnCTrPZaNtq85dKp4oQDoVPBUMAaqtRCWQ2PRrWiJ7d_RiCM3h9nfVf8J/s160/k-3+graphs.jpg" border="0" />s. Integrating with the math curriculum in the Lower School classrooms, the graphs created in the computer lab echoed math lessons in each grade, while teaching valuable technology skills.<br /><br />Kindergarten students made pictographs that charted the characteristics of the classmates in their computer group. Together they <img style="CLEAR: both; FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh826TDvYPqVZcqaqc1omh2f1uUrbkfffcj23k5LpL0yrMDJx3QdVeZR5kOSwHp4iypaRW4mi9xys5c9dWtMb4aEKO2RKgLow4ONHHpsJe80t2TNvGmBALD_TPuTXOrqPnfePAARiAziZsc/s160/k-3+graphs.jpg" border="0" />thought of images they could find or draw in <em>KidPix</em> to represent things like hair color, gender and age.<br /><br />First Graders chose from a number of different topics (Favorite Pets, Favorite Colors, Favorite Holidays, etc.) and began by gathering data from their classmates using a tally chart. They then translated their tally chart findings into a bar graph on the computer.<br /><img style="CLEAR: both; FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdBrVuSN3zFuVAFtfteJT-x81WF8CcGY3XmpXO449xLBVip9DM_Y88IK6uyno-oNX0g5s1bVWujshkBC5pzjEJ4FEDxy4zBki0CqLA_krnDEDeaVe4Im0AVzeWPv1a9oYx0IDzxsNLbTUS/s160/k-6.jpg" border="0" /><br />Second Grade took their tally and bar graphs a step further by setting up a color key to represent each student in their group, so that their graphs could show additional information. Now we could see not only how many students liked or didn't like turkey, but exactly<br />who those students were.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoNEwIYxwET9eHBtnJpXD8yKCRUydGInMXxD-eid6NGmjSnDQbJI-p0A4nvvUI6pmVynEZ4ATE70JK315QIxX0Wk3s-3gNFCP3Z4AxpzVtaBjB7R9MWYmb_MUQRkkF3ak_qEDddfKc3_Vp/s1600-h/k-4.jpg"><img style="CLEAR: both; FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoNEwIYxwET9eHBtnJpXD8yKCRUydGInMXxD-eid6NGmjSnDQbJI-p0A4nvvUI6pmVynEZ4ATE70JK315QIxX0Wk3s-3gNFCP3Z4AxpzVtaBjB7R9MWYmb_MUQRkkF3ak_qEDddfKc3_Vp/s160/k-4.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />The Third grade learned about probability in their math class.<br />After predicting which color M&M's or Skittles they believed would be the most and least common in a small bag, they came in to the computer lab and charted their findings. Using <em>Microsoft Excell</em>, they learned how to enter their data in cells and then set up the parameters for their bar charts.<br /><div style="CLEAR: both; TEXT-ALIGN: right"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img style="BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BACKGROUND: 0% 50%; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; moz-background-clip: initial; moz-background-origin: initial; moz-background-inline-policy: initial" alt="Posted by Picasa" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" align="middle" border="0" /></a></div>Ellen Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00262070158397276171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2386110131030668858.post-68223369894484166442008-10-23T16:02:00.000-07:002008-10-23T16:41:36.224-07:00FIRST GRADE TRIP TO HOMESTEAD FARMAfter a visit to Homestead Farm, First grade students wrote about something they liked, saw or did on their trip. Working in <em>Microsoft Word</em>, children began by typing their sentences and then saved their files. They drew their pictures in <em>KidPix</em>.<br /><br />Returning to their original <em>Word</em> file, students learned how to format their type, changing the size, font and color. They then imported their <em>KidPix</em> drawing into the <em>Word</em> document and printed out the finished picture.Ellen Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00262070158397276171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2386110131030668858.post-4141570236288796512008-10-13T12:00:00.000-07:002008-10-13T12:23:47.330-07:00SECOND GRADE NEIGHBORHOOD MAPSAs part of their Social Studies unit on communities, second grade students learned a lot about cities and neighborhoods, then made beautiful maps in their classroom. In the computer lab, the students used <em>Google Earth</em> to zoom in on and view, first the city of Rockville, then our school, and some even looked at their own houses and neighborhoods. We discussed how the pictures were taken by satellite and were views from on top of their houses, so you couldn't see the windows and doors, but you could see the layouts of streets and yards.<br /><br />Working in <em>KidPix</em>, second graders made maps of the immediate area around their homes, trying to show as much detail as might be captured by satellite pictues. It was hard to keep the maps totally flat, especially when tempted by all the great stamps of trees, cars and animals available in <em>KidPix</em>!Ellen Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00262070158397276171noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2386110131030668858.post-22645338275318427642008-09-21T06:51:00.000-07:002008-09-23T03:52:17.053-07:00SELF PORTRAITS<span style="font-family:arial;">In the Lower School Computer Lab, our first project is a self portrait. Each grade creates a different type of image as they explore new possibilities in age appropriate programs. We begin/reinforce file management skills as we name, save and print our files. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Kindergarten classes are introduced to <em>KidPix</em>. While practicing mouse skills (movement, click, click and drag) they create a self-portrait acrostic of their name. For each letter in their name, they find stamps of objects that begin with the same letter sound.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">First grade continues to work in <em>KidPix</em>, which they've become quite comfortable with over the past year. With better dexterity and hand-eye coordination, they explore the tool bar further and actually draw an image of themselves.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Second grade returns to <em>KidPix</em> as well, and also creates an acrostic of their name, but this time they search for adjectives beginning with the same letters of their name to describe themselves. They take pictures of each other with a digital camera, and learn how to download the photo from the camera to their computer. They then import the image into their acrostic file.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Third grade builds on their knowledge from previous years. They take pictures of each other and download the photos from the camera to their computers. Working in <em>Adobe Photoshop</em>, they experiment with the filters and drawing tools and manipulate the photo of themselves. They save six different images, and then import those images into <em>Adobe Pagemaker</em>, arranging them into an "Andy Warhol" type portrait and adding their name.</span>Ellen Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00262070158397276171noreply@blogger.com0